it's the short hello's and the long goodbye's
by xLittle Black Star
Summary: So maybe she'd missed him a lot more than she would ever admit. Percabeth reunion and a little extra. R&R.


**Note: **Everyone's got a theory. Except I'm right and everyone else is wrong.

FIRST CHAPTER OF MOA ASDFGHJKL MY EMOTIONS

(and also i am not entirely sure what this is or where i intended it to go. but this is where it ended up. apparently i cannot kick my percabeth shipping habits.)

* * *

Annabeth shivered under his touch. She hadn't realized just how much she'd missed the rush he could give her just by walking into the room.

His lips moved from her mouth to the edge of her jaw. Annabeth's heart lurched and gasp pried its way out of her throat.

He would be the death of her.

All her rational thinking, all her her set limits and boundaries, all her planning, _gone _with a simple, brief make-out session with her boyfriend.

It was _pathetic_, to be frank.

She couldn't help it. It had been _eight months. _Eight lonely, dull, head-smackingly _boring _months, even though she'd never admit it. Her body had ached for his touch, and his dry, sarcastic remarks, and even the way he could make her blush with that stupid smile of his.

Percy paused to chuckle in her ear. Annabeth seethed. It was rare that Percy had the upper-hand, and she didn't _like _it. She preferred to do the controlling, not to be controlled.

She hated him sometimes, she really did.

He kissed down her neck hungrily. She curled her arms around his neck and pressed her body closer against his, concentrating on the heat of having him attached to her and the thump of his his quickly-beating heart.

Somewhere, in a part of her mind she was currently ignoring, she knew this was getting way out of control. There would be time enough for this later – possibly in a bedroom, or at least somewhere classier than an abandoned cabin on the outskirts of Camp Jupiter, with fungus lodged between rotting wood and crawling with a wide assortment of bugs. And anyway, she knew it could only be a few more minutes before someone or another came looking for them, if no one was already. It had been humorously easy to escape Leo and Jason, but Piper... Piper was _so _onto them. Luckily, Annabeth could trust the blessed girl to keep her mouth shut.

Under normal circumstances, Annabeth would've ended it long before it reached this point. But it was high time Percy started behaving like a normal teenage boy – hormones and all. And she couldn't say she minded.

It might be difficult to think with your boyfriend connected to you, but not impossible. And if anyone could manage it, Annabeth could.

She contemplated pulling away slightly – she knew he could take a hint, and he'd always been more than understanding – but before she could, Percy stiffened.

Annabeth's mind automatically seized out on all the possible issues. She hadn't been able to relax since... well, in _months. _Her heart-rate had skyrocketed the instant the _Argo II _had landed, and hadn't gone down since. She knew Percy claimed he was fine, but she wasn't stupid; she'd observed him enough over the past five years to know when there was something gnawing at him. His eyes had looked a little duller, a littler darker lately, and it seriously freaked her out when she noticed him staring blankly at nothing. She hated that detached, distant look, and it took everything in her not to push him to talk about it.

"What," Percy breathed, stroking the base of her neck with his thumb, "is this?"

Goosebumps prickled along the left side of her neck and spread across her shoulders. Instinctively, her fingers stretched over the patch of skin, pushing Percy's hand out of the way protectively. The skin there was rough and calloused from her obsessive rubbing and scratching.

Her stomach flipped and her mouth struggled to form a convincing lie, but she knew it was useless. He recognized _it_ from Daedalus and he called her out on it.

Annabeth mentally snorted. She didn't doubt Percy had been onto her the whole time. He had an uncanny sixth sense about those types of things, and she often found he could read her better than she gave him credit for.

From her perspective, she had two options: throw a tantrum and slink away, thus making him worry and pester her until she caved, or confess and get on with her life.

Annabeth was not fond of either.

She moved her ponytail over her shoulder to cover _it _and wrapped her arms around herself defensively.

"Annabeth?" Percy prodded gently.

She took a shuddering breath. The look of utter intensity and concern on his face was so familiar.

"You know what it is," Annabeth snarled. Percy raised his eyebrows slightly, silently and subconsciously reprimanding her. She winced at the tone of her own words.

She hated herself sometimes, she really did.

"Athena's a bitch," Annabeth muttered. That should be enough of an explanation – what kind of mother seared marks into her children's necks? – and she wasn't going into the details. They were too long, too vivid. She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to ignore the memories that floated in front of her eyes.

And suddenly, it was all too _much. _She was so sick of everything being clandestine and tedious. She'd been treading water since December, and wouldn't have nearly enough time to catch her breath before they had to leave for Rome. She was marked; _branded, _and the pain of the heat on her neck burned just as badly as it had the first day.

She sank to the floor for fear that her legs would give out and she'd collapse there instead. "I just—" she hated the break in her voice. Despised how it trembled and managed to sound so entirely weak. Her eyes stung and her cheeks burned from complete and utter mortification. How, _how _could she ever look him in the eye after this? After he _knew, he knew—_

And how had she gone from euphoric to so _miserable _in just a few minutes?

She would just destroy her emotions, if she could. She would—

"I know," Percy said simply. He let it linger as he slid down next to her.

She wanted to lash out; shriek and scream. It wasn't fair; he couldn't know, couldn't understand. "How?" she gasped venemously. "How do you always know? Can't I ever just keep things to myself?"

"Because I know you."

Annabeth stared at the floor. It wasn't like she could argue – he did know her. He _knew _her, thoroughly and in a totally inescapable way. He knew her excessive need to be the best, knew her distaste for vulnerability and all her OCD habits. He'd seen her this stressed out and then some.

"Just leave," she muttered. She didn't _want _comfort; the last thing she needed was a witness to her melodramatic breakdown.

"As if," he snorted and rolled his eyes. "You can't possibly think I'm going to get up and leave you here by yourself."

"I wish you would," she grumbled.

"No you don't," he stated plainly.

Annabeth hugged her knees to her chest. "We can't just disappear for the night," she mumbled, trying desperately to keep the humiliation out of her voice.

Percy shifted closer to her until they sat side by side, close enough that their arms were touching. Close enough for her to rest her head on his shoulder. He reached up behind her head and pulled the elastic out, freeing her hair from her infamous sloppy ponytail. Her hair fell in frizzy corkscrews, kinky and hopelessly knotty.

"Why not?" he murmured, brushing gently through her curls with his fingers. He tugged slightly at one and watched it spring back up.

She nestled her head in the crook of his neck. So maybe she'd missed him more than she would ever admit. Missed his laugh and how he frowned when he was worried and his _smell._

Well, it was only one night.


End file.
